17 Best Restaurants in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

This romantic roadhouse near the Chatham border, adorned with tiny white lights, wine bottles, and warm-hue walls, might just transport you to Italy—and if it doesn't, the fantastic food certainly will. There are always excellent specials added to the menu; in the fall and winter, look for value-priced entrées, and in summer, their hot dog cart (in the parking lot) serves the best wieners on the Cape.

With an open kitchen that turns out some excellent and artful dishes, especially seafood, this tiny place keeps its tables full and its guests happy (reservations strongly recommended). Fine service by a friendly and knowledgeable staff adds greatly to the overall atmosphere.

Yuji Watanabe, chef-owner of the Cape's best Japanese restaurant, makes early-morning journeys to Boston's fish markets to shop for the freshest local catch, and the resulting selection of sushi and sashimi is vast and artful. The serene and simple Japanese garden out back has a traditional koi pond.

Northern Italian and Mediterranean cooking distinguish this upscale, popular place. Make sure to come hungry—portions of classic favorites here are huge. Live music adds to the festive vibe on Sunday afternoons year-round. An excellent wine list pairs perfectly with the food.

More than 1,000 oysters are eaten here on an average summer weekend, a good deal of them procured near daily from the restaurant's own oyster farm in nearby Barnstable. You'll always find close to two dozen raw and "dressed" oyster dishes; there's also a nice range of nonoyster entrées, salads, and appetizers.

Inside the snazzy Crowne Pointe Inn, this intimate, casually handsome restaurant occupies the parlor and sunroom of a grand sea captain's mansion and serves finely crafted, healthful, modern American food with daily specials focused on local ingredients. There's a substantial wine list, with more than a 125 selections to choose from, as well as a large martini menu.

Gorgeously presented, impeccably fresh seafood is standard here: lunch and dinner selections range from just-off-the-boat scallops to tuna, local oysters, and octopus. It can be noisy and it's always crowded in summer, but it's worth the wait.

Fanciful cocktails, an intriguing menu, live music, and daily blackboard specials make this a popular Chatham spot. There's also a changing tapas menu for quick bites at the bar.

Owned by two commercial fishermen (who happen to be brothers), this casually upscale seafood spot (attached to a seafood market) offers indoor and outdoor waterside dining at Cape Cod Canal. The menu offers a nice break from the usual fried seafood baskets, so diners opt for fresh oysters, sushi, and steamed lobster and crab buckets.

This always-hopping downtown spot serves commendable dinner fare and draws big crowds for cocktails and appetizers. The bar is long and comfortable, and is a good spot to dine if there are no tables available.

A meal at this good-natured, rough-hewn fish shack with a hypernautical theme is an absolute Cape Cod tradition for some people. Bring your own libations, and if you need to kill time (the lines are sometimes daunting), stop inside Moby's Cargo, the bustling gift shop next door.

The food and the interior share a penchant for unusual, striking juxtapositions—a classical sculpture in front of an abstract canvas, for instance, or an artful plate of boneless chicken and scallops in Thai peanut sauce arrayed on a bed of lo mein noodles. The art collection on display here is significant, and includes many noted Provincetown artists; the late Napi Van Dereck and his wife Helen collected gems for many, many years.

For more than 50 years, this family-run seafood and ice cream shack has been serving hungry vacationers. It's a go-to joint for a quick post-beach dinner (or pre-beach lunch) with a menu that goes beyond the usual deep-fried items: Options include broiled seafood plates, hot and cold lobster rolls, and 15 different salads. Order dessert at the soft-serve ice-cream window. 

With the Cape Playhouse right across the street, this upscale contemporary American restaurant is a favorite before- and after-show haunt. There's plenty of seafood on the eclectic menu, which includes seafood strudel with crab, shrimp, and scallops baked in a pastry crust and topped with Newburg sauce, but carnivores will delight in dishes like linguine Bolognese or the Mongolian pork chop with braised red cabbage. Lighter meals include a ginger shrimp salad and an Asian-style fish sandwich served with seaweed salad. Save room for their signature grape-nut custard.

Award-winning clam chowder and crave-worthy hot-buttered lobster rolls draw seafood lovers to this Cape Cod mainstay, wooing diners since 1936. If there's a long wait (and there will be) at this spot across the street from the beach, eat dessert first; there's an ice-cream shack adjoining the restaurant.

Supplies pour in from the restaurant's own oyster farm in the bay, though oysters (and clams) from other towns are well represented and can be had a variety of ways—raw on the half shell is the best way to enjoy these superfresh bivalves. It's a fun place all around, with great food and a boisterous atmosphere.